The present invention relates to a semiconductor package and a method for manufacturing the same.
These days, semiconductor packages having semiconductor devices capable of storing a large amount of data and processing stored data in a short period have been developed. Semiconductor packages having semiconductor devices are being applied to personal computers, television receivers, electric home appliances, information communication equipment, and so forth.
In general, semiconductor packages are manufactured through a semiconductor chip manufacturing process in which semiconductor chips are formed by integrating transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc. into a semiconductor wafer. Then, a packaging process in which the semiconductor chips are individually separated from the wafer and are electrically connected with outside circuit boards which are packaged such that the highly brittle semiconductor chips may be protected from external shocks and vibrations.
Recently, with the development of semiconductor packaging technologies, a “flip chip package”, which has substantially the same size as a semiconductor chip, has been disclosed in the art. The flip chip package has a size that is no greater than 100% to 110% of the size of a semiconductor chip.
The conventional flip chip package has a construction in which the bonding pads located on a semiconductor chip, and the connection pads formed on a printed circuit board, are electrically connected with each other by means of bumps instead of conductive wires.
The flip chip package, in which the bonding pads of the semiconductor chip and the connection pads of the printed circuit board are electrically connected with each other by means of the bumps, provides an advantage in that data may be stored and/or processed at a high speed.
In a conventional flip chip package, since the bonding pads of the semiconductor chip and the connection pads of the printed circuit board are electrically connected with each other only by means of the bumps, the bumps, which connect the bonding pads and the connection pads, are likely to be easily broken by externally applied shocks and/or vibrations.
In order to prevent the bumps from being easily broken by externally applied shocks and/or vibrations, in another conventional flip chip package, an underfill member formed of an underfill material is located between the semiconductor chip and the printed circuit board.
Because the semiconductor chip and the printed circuit board are firmly attached to each other due to the presence of the underfill member, the reliability of the flip chip package may be improved.
Recently, the size of the semiconductor chip included in the flip chip package is being markedly decreased, and the number of bonding pads formed in the semiconductor chip is being rapidly increased. According to this, the size of the bonding pad and the interval between the bonding pads are also being considerably decreased. Further, as the size of the bonding pad and the interval between the bonding pads are decreased, the size of the bump, which connects the bonding pad of the semiconductor chip and the connection pad of the printed circuit board, is also being decreased.
If the size of the bump connecting the bonding pad and the connection pad is decreased, the gap between the semiconductor chip and the printed circuit board of the flip chip package cannot but be decreased in conformity with the decrease in the size of the bump.
If the gap between the semiconductor chip and the printed circuit board is decreased, it becomes difficult to fill the underfill material between the semiconductor chip and the printed circuit board. Also, even when the underfill member is formed by filling the underfill material between the semiconductor chip and the printed circuit board, a plurality of voids are likely to be created in the underfill member.
Moisture may leak into the voids created in the underfill member, and the moisture collected in the voids may induce cracks which are detrimental to the underfill member as it expands in a subsequent annealing process.